A column at The Columbia Journalism Review has revealed the media establishment's collective reluctance to report incidents of detainee abuse, torture, and even homicide in the early days of the "war on terror," RAW STORY can report.

Writer Eric Umansky goes into extensive detail--relaying several anecdotes directly from journalists who attempted to cover such incidents--regarding mainstream network and newspaper distate for negative coverage of the war.

One British reporter that Umansky spoke to discussed an unnamed show that passed on his story of secret CIA prisoner transfers, telling the reporter that they preferred items with "somebody who's innocent."